HP Packs 8 Xeons Into New Servers

Proliant DL740 and DL760 handle complex software at lower cost.

Hewlett-Packard Co. last week rolled out two servers that come equipped with eight Intel Corp. Xeon MP processors plus a new chip set, a hot-plug RAID memory capability and enhanced ProLiant Essentials management software.
The ProLiant DL740 and the second-generation ProLiant DL760 are designed to handle complex applications at less cost than other systems, which will aid enterprises looking to consolidate the servers in their data centers, according to HP officials in Palo Alto, Calif. They said the servers are targeted at large back-office software, such as databases, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications.

The servers, which are available now and run Linux, Windows and .Net, both feature HPs new F8 chip set, which incorporates PCI-X I/O technology, Gigabit Ethernet and Ultra3 SCSI, all designed to ramp up the servers bandwidth. The Xeon MP processors run at 1.5GHz or 2GHz, officials said.

The hot-plug RAID memory technologypart of HPs Advanced Memory Protection software familyuses a redundant array of dual in-line memory modules to provide fault tolerance and enables users to expand and maintain memory without having to bring the system down, officials said. If a memory stick falters, users can simply swap them out without downtime, officials said.
The DL740, space-optimized so that it fits in a 4U (7-inch) chassis, starts at $24,999. The DL760 G2, which fits into a 7U (12.25-inch) chassis, is priced starting at $27,999.
The chip set and memory capabilities are important for Crossmark Holdings Inc., a professional business services company in Plano, Texas. The company has been using previous generations of DL servers, including the first-generation DL760, which feature HPs Profusion chip set, "which has been cutting-edge up until recently," said Jason Robohm, director of technical services. The F8 chip set will increase the performance and speed of the servers, said Robohm, who added that he intends to buy the new servers soon.

In addition, the memory capabilities "give us the ability to determine if we have a bad batch of memory," Robohm said. "We will be able to virtually look at a part of the box and look at what bad memory we have. And well have the ability to replace that without any impact on our business."
HP ProLiant Essentials management software comes with new features, including Performance Management Pack. The pack includes ProLiant Performance Analyzer, which monitors the servers for hardware bottlenecks and gives corrective recommendations. The new HP Insight Manager 7 SP2 provides an integrated console for the pack.
For server consolidation, the systems can be equipped with HP Workload Management software, which enables multiple applications to run on a single Windows 2000 server. Partitioning technology from VMware Inc., also of Palo Alto, lets users run multiple operating systems on one server.